Beer Club (week 26 and anniverary retrospective)

Great mix of styles this week:

• Anniversay Barley Wine Ale (Uinta Brewing Company)
• Eliot Ness Amber Lager (Great Lakes Brewing Company)
• Inlet India Pale Ale (16 Mile Brewery)
• Oatmeal Milk Stout (River Horse Brewing Company)
• Old Court Ale (16 Mile Brewery)
• Summer Farmhouse Ale (Flying Fish Brewing Company)

Also, April 15th was the first anniversary of our little club. To commemorate that occasion, I reproduce below the most complete list available of the beers that we have exchanged in the last year. (Because of furloughs and vacations, I missed a couple of weeks last summer.) The list contains 123 beers from 70 different breweries in 23 states and four countries. I haven't closely tracked the styles, but scanning this list it is easy to see that there have been dozens. It has been a very educational experience.

I'll go on record with my five favorite beers I've discovered through the club, in chronological order:

• Racer 5 IPA (Bear Republic Brewing Company)
• Burning River Pale Ale (Great Lakes Brewing Company)
• Hoptober (New Belgium Brewing Company)
• Imperial Red IPA (Lagunitas Brewing Company)
• Two Hearted Ale (Bell's Brewery, Inc.)
• Double Stout (Green Flash Brewing Company)

And here is the full list:

1554 Enlightened Black Ale (New Belgium Brewing Company)
1860 IPA (Stoudts Brewing Company)
2011 Anchor Christmas Ale (Anchor Brewing Company)
471 IPA (Breckinridge Brewing)
A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale (Lagunitas Brewing Company)
Anchor Porter (Anchor Brewing Company)
Anchor Steam (Anchor Brewing Company)
Anniversay Barley Wine Ale (Uinta Brewing Company)
Aprihop (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)
Belgo (New Belgium Brewing)
Bell Ringer (RJ Rockers)
Bell's Special Double Cream Stout (Bell's Brewery, Inc.)
Big Bison Ale (Crown Valley Brewing & Distilling Company)
Big Swell IPA (Maui Brewing Company) Black Hawk Stout (Mendocino Brewing Company)
Bitter American (21st Amendment Brewery)
Black Jack Porter (Left Hand Brewing Company)
Black Lightning (DuClaw Brewing Company)
Blue Fin Stout (Shipyard Brewing Company)
Brew Free or Die IPA (21st Amendment Brewery)
Brooklyn Summer Ale (Brooklyn Brewery)
Brrr (Widmer Brothers Brewing Company)
Burning River Pale Ale (Great Lakes Brewing Company)
Carolina Blonde (Carolina Beer Company)
Celebrator Doppelbock (Brauerei Aying)
Chang (Thai Beverage)
Copper Ale (Otter Creek Brewing)
Dale's Pale Ale (Oskar Blues Grill & Brewery)
Demo (Magic Hat Brewing Company)
Dig IPA (New Belgium Brewing Company)
Dominion Millennium Ale (Old Dominion Brewing Company)
Double Stout (Green Flash Brewing Company)
Duchesse De Bourgongne (Brouwerij Verhaeghe)
Dundee Summer Wheat (Dundee/Genesee Brewing Company)
Eliot Ness (Great Lakes Brewing Company)
Exile ESB (Evolution Craft Brewing Company)
Exit 4 American Trippel (Flying Fish Brewing Company)
Franziskaner Weissebier (Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu)
Golden Monkey (Victory Brewing Company)
Harpoon Celtic Ale (Harpoon Brewery)
Headwater Pale Ale (Victory Brewing Company)
Heavy Seas Black Cannon (Clipper City Brewing Company)
Heavy Seas Märzen (Clipper City Brewing Company)
Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer (21st Amendment Brewery)
Hex Ourtoberfest (Magic Hat Brewing Company)
Hobgoblin Dark English Ale (Wychwood Brewery)
Hop Hazard (River Horse Brewing Company)
Hop Head Red Ale (Green Flash Brewing Company)
Hop Notch (Uinta Brewing Company)
Hop Rod Rye (Bear Republic Brewery)
HopDevil Ale (Victory Brewing Company)
Hoptical Illusion (Blue Point Brewing Company)
Hoptober (New Belgium Brewing Company)
Hoss Rye Lager (Great Divide Brewing)
Howl (Magic Hat Brewing Company)
Humming Ale (Anchor Brewing Company)
Imperial Red IPA (Lagunitas Brewing Company)
India Brown Ale (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)
Inlet India Pale Ale (16 Mile Brewery)
IPA (Southern Tier Brewing Company)
Jagged Edge IPA (Black Diamond Brewing Company)
JavaHead Stout (Tröegs Brewing Company)
Kellerweis Hefeweizen (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)
Latitude 48 IPA (Boston Beer Company)
Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy (Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company)
Levitation Ale (Stone Brewing Company)
Long Hammer IPA (Redhook Ale Brewery)
Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale (Clipper City Brewing Company)
Lot No3 India Pale Ale (Evolution Craft Brewing Company)
Lucky U IPA (Breckenridge Brewery)
Mad Elf Ale (Tröegs Brewing Company)
Mendocino Seasonal Bock Beer (Mendocino Brewing Company)
Mojo IPA (Boulder Beer Company)
Newcastle Founders' Ale (Caledonian Brewery)
Nugget Nectar (Tröegs Brewing Company)
Oatmeal Milk Stout (River Horse Brewing Company)
Old #38 Stout (North Coast Brewing Company)
Old Chub Scotch Ale (Oskar Blues Grill & Brewery)
Old Court Ale (16 Mile Brewery)
Old Leghumper Robust Porter (Thirsty Dog Brewing Company)
Old Man (Southern Tier Brewing Company)
Optimator Doppelbock (Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu)
Palm (Brouwerij Palm NV)
Pandora's Bock (Breckenridge Brewery)
Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen (Paulaner Brauerei)
Pecan Harvest (Abita Brewing Company)
Phin & Matt's Extraordinary Ale (Southern Tier Brewing Company)
Pipeline Porter (Kona Brewing Company)
Pumpkinhead Ale (Shipyard Brewing Company)
Punkin Ale (Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales)
Racer 5 IPA (Bear Republic Brewing Company)
Raging Bitch (Flying Dog Brewery)
Railbender Ale (Erie Brewing Company)
Raison D'Être (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)
Red Rocket Ale (Bear Republic Brewery)
Red's Rye P.A. (Founders Brewing Company)
Robust Porter (Smuttynose Brewing Company)
Ruthless Rye IPA (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)
Santa's Private Reserve (Rogue Ales)
Saranac Black Forest (Matt Brewing Company)
Saranac Caramel Porter (Matt Brewing Company)
Saranac Imperial IPA (Matt Brewing Company)
Satsuma Harvest Wit (Abita Brewing Company)
Schlafly Coffee Stout (The Saint Louis Brewery)
Shiner Oktoberfest (Spoetzl Brewery)
Shock Top Belgian White (Anheuser-Busch, Inc.)
Snake Dog IPA (Flying Dog Brewery)
Snow Day (New Belgium Brewing Company)
Spring Fling Copper Ale (Blue Point Brewing Company)
Steelhead Extra Pale Ale (Mad River Brewing Company)
Steelhead Extra Stout (Mad River Brewing Company)
Stone IPA (Stone Brewing Company)
Stoudt's Gold Lager (Stoudt's Brewing Company)
Stoudt's Oktober Fest (Stoudt's Brewing Company)
Summer Farmhouse Ale (Flying Fish Brewing Company)
Terrapin Rye Pale Ale (Terrapin Beer Company)
The Raven Special Lager (Baltimore-Washington Beer Works)
Thomas Jefferson's Tavern Ale (Yards Brewing Company)
Titan IPA (Great Divide Brewing Company)
Torpedo Extra IPA (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)
Tripel Horse (River Horse Brewing Company)
Turbodog (Abita Brewing Company)
Two Hearted Ale (Bell's Brewery, Inc.)
Yakima Glory (Victory Brewing Company)

Two Hearted Ale (Bell's Brewery, Inc.)

Great anticipation surrounds my tasting of Bell's Two Hearted Ale. This IPA has been praised to me in the highest terms by several beer lovers whose opinions I trust, and it maintains an average rating of 95 after 2,661 community reviews on BeerAdvocate.com.

A monochromatic painting of a salmon adorns the label. (I guess that's what people fish for up there in the Upper Peninsula where the bottle recommends traveling?) I pop the cap and pour. The beer is on the lighter side of amber with a slight hop haze and half an inch of fluffy foam.

The aroma is slightly citrusy, but delicate -- not the sharp, resiny citrus nose so prevalent in American IPAs. There is also a delightful powdery, cotton candy freshness.

The Bell's website speaks of "massive [hop] additions in the kettle and again in the fermenter," so imagine my surprise when the first impression in my mouth is... malt and not hops. Yes, the hops are there, of course, in the requisite abundance, but they are balanced in perfect measure with a sweet, slightly toasty grain backbone.

"Balance" is the word that keeps coming back to me as I sip this medium-bodied ale. Never do I note the clean malt flavor without immediately observing the floral Centennial hop charm, and vice versa. There is some peach fruitiness in ride out, but the hops-and-malt interplay carries through to the farthest reaches of the aftertaste. At a scarcely-noticeable 7% ABV, this one's drinkability is downright dangerous.

I haven't done any research on the origin of its name, but it is easy for me to imagine hops and malt flavors as the "two hearts" beating in unison within this brew. I now proudly join the chorus of fans proclaiming its greatness.

From the bottle's label:

An India Pale Ale style well suited for adventurous trips to the Upper Penninsula. American malts and enormous hop additions give this beer a crisp finish and an incredibly floral hop aroma.

Featured beer:
Two Hearted Ale

Beer Club (week 25)

We came up with an amazingly diverse set of styles this week. Love it!

• Belgo (New Belgium Brewing)
• Bell's Special Double Cream Stout (Bell's Brewery, Inc.)
• Long Hammer IPA (Redhook Ale Brewery)
• Pandora's Bock (Breckenridge Brewery)
• Steelhead Extra Pale Ale (Mad River Brewing Company)
• Turbodog (Abita Brewing Company)

Delaware Oyster Stout (16 Mile Brewing Company)

Through some combination of rest, vitamin C, and regimented nasal irrigation, I managed to snap back from my cold within a week. It was no fun being unable to taste beer!

I decided to return to Ulysses and give 16 Mile's Delaware Oyster Stout more of a fair trail. (I reviewed it in a cursory fashion last week) I was pleased to confirm the impression that my dimmed had senses hinted at: it really is a delicious stout.

Although I could not definitively assess the beer's appearance in the lighting of the bar, it is black enough to get the point across. There was negligible head when it was served to me the 10 oz. tulip glass. The aroma when cold was quite subdued, giving up only an earthy scent reminiscent of tamari.

To the taste, the beer is presents an initial mineral note that settles down into the smoldering undertones of the cherrywood smoked malt. My assumption is that this mineral quality comes from the dissolved oyster shells, and possibly somewhat from the meat. There is a play of dark chocolate and espresso hints there as well. Despite fairly sharp carbonation, the stout still pulls off a creamy and satisfying mouthfeel. The finish is long-lingering and smoky.

If you drink this looking for a briny or fishy quality, you will find none. Whether the chocolaty complexity of the main body owes solely to the malt or whether it gains from the oysters is beyond me to determine, but it was fun to ponder.

Delaware Oyster stout is a fine, contemplative brew. I'll admit that it is the first beer from 16 Mile that I have been excited about. This is encouraging, because it can't be easy to nail this unique style, and I believe they've done it. I doubt they will bottle this recipe, but I would love to see them come out with it in bars seasonally.

Featured beer:
Delaware Oyster Stout

A token effort...

A sudden head cold/sinus infection has compromised the trustworthiness of my tasting faculties and threatened to disrupt my weekly publishing schedule. Instead of a full-blown review, I will merely note that I popped in to Ulysses American Gastropub for a sample of 16 Mile Brewing Company's Delaware Oyster Stout. (I was at the Rite-Aid getting saline refills for my Neti Pot, and it was right next door, so...)

This beer was created by the Georgetown brewery in cooperation with Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, and a portion of the proceeds from its sale will go to that group and help them advance their Delaware Bay Oyster Restoration Project. It was a delicious stout, as far as I could tell, rich with chocolate and smoky, dark malt flavors, and featuring a creamy mouthfeel likely enhanced by the 100 Delaware Bay oysters that went into the brew kettle. This is a limited edition small batch, so I thought that tasting it with an impaired nose would be better than missing it altogether.

And just to round things out, here is a reproduction of Ulysses' current draft beer menu.

Featured beer:
Delaware Oyster Stout

Beer Club (week 24)

Another nice lineup. Kid Wade contributed a bonus seventh bottle: "Brandywine Baltic Porter" homebrewed by himself and MB's husband, Danny.

• Aprihop (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery)
• Heavy Seas Black Cannon (Clipper City Brewing Company)
• Hoptical Illusion (Blue Point Brewing Company)
• Kellerweis Hefeweizen (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)
• Thomas Jefferson's Tavern Ale (Yards Brewing Company)
• Two Hearted Ale (Bell's Brewery, Inc.)

Whole Foods Market's "Brew & Brau"

First there was sliced bread. Then came the iPhone. Now, another great idea whose time has come: a pub inside a grocery store.

It gets better. The grocery store is Whole Foods Market, a chain with more than 300 locations in the U.S. that is widely praised for its conscientious buying practices and wholesome products.

Better still, Brew & Brau, the in-store pub which opened March 14 at the Glen Eagle Square shopping center in Glen Mills, qualifies as a “tavern” under Pennsylvania’s archaic Liquor Code, which permits it to sell up to 192 ounces of beer for takeout – that’s anything from a 12-ounce bottle up to two 12-packs. (You’re forced to buy a minimum of one case if you shop at a Pennsylvania beer wholesaler.)

And this spot is a mere 1.6 miles over the Delaware state line.

Hang a hard left as soon as you walk into the Whole Foods and you will see the natural wood and plate glass enclosure of the Brew & Brau, a space large enough to comfortably house a bar with nine stools, high tables with seats for another 20 or so, and a walk-in cold room for bottled beer.

Out front, piled high on either side of the entrance, are stacks of six-packs – an intentionally brazen proclamation of beer for sale.

One wall of large windows in the pub looks out onto the bakery area of the store, beyond which lie a salad bar, wells of bulk olives, hot food islands and deli counters. A person could do all right on either side of those windows.

Consistent with the Whole Foods philosophy, the beer you’ll find on the eight taps inside the pub is fresh and local. Christine Meredith, the company’s wine and beer buyer for the Mid-Atlantic region, came up from Rockville, Md., to get the pub running.

“The Philly area has so much culture and pride around beer,” she said when asked about the decision to feature an all-local draft lineup. “And it fits with our mission in everything we do: We’re about recycling and reducing shipping distances, and we’re about freshness and supporting the local community.”

Dan Koltonuk, a Whole Foods cheese counter veteran and self-described “beer nerd” who will oversee the beer program at Brew & Brau, said “the taps will allow us to bring in breweries that don’t bottle, so they might not get as much exposure.”

The beers flowing on opening day underscored those ideas: a small-batch German altbier that Philadelphia’s Yards Brewing Company custom brewed for Whole Foods; a rye IPA from Dock Street Brewery in Philadelphia; the acclaimed HopDevil Ale from Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown; Krook’s Mill Pale Ale from Manayunk Brewery in Philadelphia; an IPA made with mango and ginger by Boxcar Brewing Company in West Chester; Insana Stout made with chocolate and soy bacon (!) by Prism Brewing Company in North Wales; Lucky S.O.B. Irish Red Ale from Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Md.; and the highly sought-after Nugget Nectar Imperial Amber by Tröegs Brewing Company in Hershey.

Discarding the geographic outliers of Flying Dog and Tröegs, the remaining six breweries are all situated within 40 miles of the Brew & Brau.

The bottled beer selection does make some concession to shoppers looking for familiar mass-produced brands, with about a quarter of the shelf space devoted to names like Corona, Heineken, Samuel Adams, and Blue Moon. But the rest of the cooler is stocked with, inch for inch, one of the most diverse assortments of craft beers and imports you’ll find in the area. Offerings from revered breweries like Bell’s and Founders that do not distribute in Delaware are likely to draw many beer-loving First Staters across the Pa. line, sales tax be damned.

Most of the stock is available as singles for building what Brew & Brau calls ‘Mix-A-Six.’ “We want to make it easy for people to try new stuff and see what they might like to buy more of,” Koltonuk said.

Beyond beer, the Brew & Brau offers six local wines by the glass and a variety of organic coffees, some locally roasted. The venue is prepared to accommodate coffee-seekers in the morning, a lunch crowd geared toward something more nutritious than fast food, and an after-work clientele ready to settle in for a pint or glass of wine and shed the day’s stress – perhaps before or after picking up a gallon of organic milk and a bunch of organic Peruvian bananas.

On opening day, a stream of the curious and the thirsty kept most of the stools occupied throughout the afternoon, but the crowd surged dramatically a few minutes after 5 p.m. Jason Kohser, a co-owner of Boxcar Brewing who was on hand for the festivities, happily joined Meredith and the regular Brew & Brau staff behind the bar, taking orders and slinging pints like a pro as the traffic picked up. Kohser’s IPA was selling nearly as briskly as the more established brands.

Kathy Koons, a customer from Chester Heights, sampled with approval a Boxcar IPA at one of the tables away from the bar. She said she was “just casing the joint” that day, but she liked the size of the store, and the prepared foods might be something to try.

Koons usually shops at the Whole Foods Market in Devon, but is excited about the new location since gas prices are becoming a factor. She said the Brew & Brau seems like “a good place to come after work, meet your friends and have a beer.” These last three words she emphasized with particular relish.

His post-work visit was the second trip to Whole Foods that day for Kevin Branin. He had also popped in at lunchtime to grab a salad. Branin, who lives in West Chester, works just down the road from Whole Foods at Arora Engineers, so he had been patiently eyeing the site as construction progressed. He was back after 5, still wearing his charcoal gray suit, casually enjoying a pint of Nugget Nectar. “I’ve got to pick up some tomatoes,” he said, smiling.

A group of Wilmingtonians nestled at the bar, sipping Paradocx chardonnay from Chester County. Among them was Kim Merkl, who thinks the Brew & Brau is a great idea. “What could be better than stopping by for a glass of wine before shopping?” she said. “You’ll be more relaxed and make better decisions!”

A little after 6 p.m., the crowd swelled again. For having been open less than one day, the atmosphere in the bustling room had a surprisingly relaxed feel, like it was already populated with regulars. At 6:45, the Nugget Nectar tapped out, and Koltonuk swiftly rotated in another sixtel.

“This is a limited-availability seasonal. This may be all we get,” he mused. Nevertheless, to sell out of it so quickly did not seem like a bad problem.